Poata "Alvie" McKree is an Artist, Qoya Teacher, and Art Therapist. Her sacred work is to foster and facilitate connection to the divine, the ancestors, and the earth. This manifests variously through facilitating Art as Medicine workshops, teaching Qoya classes on sacred land, and creating personalised movement rituals for those who are labouring to birth something new into their world. Her Art practice is directly informed by midwifery and the concept of womens’ work. She spent the first half of her adult life serving women as a Registered Midwife, before following the call of her heart to support women towards emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Alvie is currently lecturing at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand, where she and her husband Rāwiri are parents to a blended family of eight children. She can usually be found somewhere on Te Ika a Maui (the North Island of New Zealand) dancing, painting, writing, sculpting, walking the land and talking-story in the company of other creative women. She can also be found on Instagram:@art_as_medicine.